Hockley

Hockley

Twenty-five years of marriage deserves a special gift – and in the case of this lucky lady it was a golf course.

John Moreton and Iain Cumming’s fabulous book, ‘James Braid and his Four Hundred Golf Courses’, reveals the origins of Hockley came from the landowner’s (Horace Trimmer) desire to create a 9-hole course for his wife Bessie’s silver wedding present.

Nine holes arrived towards the end of 1915 – no small feat given the country was in the grip of the First World War – and the rest was completed two years later.

But it was Braid’s arrival in the Spring of 1920, after Trimmer’s death, that really set this South Downs National Park layout on its way.

Today, it’s described by the club as a “pleasant walk”, making its way gradually up a valley before looking out across Winchester and to the coast.

At 6,420 yards from the white tees, it’s definitely long enough for most of us and that yardage can be altered by the breezes, which form this Hampshire course’s main defence.

The first four holes start a steady climb – check out the very slightly raised green just below a steep bank on the 2nd and the putting surface that slopes from back to front on the 4th – before reaching the summit midway through the front 9.

The 6th and 9th, contrasting par 4s in that the first is only 277 yards but requires a tactical brain while the second almost always plays into the prevailing wind, bring the opening half to a fitting close and there are some memorable moments as you start to turn back towards home.

The 12th is a lovely Braid par 3, a little flick with a short iron but tricky to hold if the flag is in a back location, and the wonderful 16th – 173-yards from the back markers – has bunkers on both sides and pushes anything struck left away from the green.

And though you may not have noticed the climb too much on the way round, what goes up must still come down and it does so in some fashion on the closing hole.

This 528-yard par 5 can be reached in two by those who are both accurate and take advantage of gravity. Even so, the approach won’t be easy as you try to judge where to land the ball as it goes running in to a green that’s only 25 yards deep.

Hockley’s sumptuous chalk downland turf means conditioning is never a problem and this beautiful piece of land requires a few hours of your golfing time.